Was in Naperville, IL yesterday and saw something I had not seen in 20 years of railfanning, short flat cars. These cars were less than 40' in length, around 30-35'. What are they used for? All four were lettered for BNSF, but looked of BN heritage and were on a Westbound Manifest freight. Brad
Probably Buffer cars, for use on overlength loads such as utility poles or idlers used for loading/pulling barges(locomotives are a bit heavy for barge slips). DC
I think Dave is on the right track *no pun intended*; long loads have idler cars to allow the extra swing, and overhang. There's really no other use for a car so small.
